Morgan Patterson
Mrs. Straub
Economics A3
30 September 2014
NFL Crossing the Pond
The icon that is American football has been a part of the country’s culture since the early 1900s and has remained a relatively foreign concept to other countries. Since 2007, though, the NFL has scheduled at least one game in London’s Wembley Stadium, but recently, more games have been scheduled, with two in the 2013 season and at least 3 scheduled for the current season. The demand from the Londoners is insane as well, with the want increasing and the ticket prices increasing even further--only once since 207 has a game brought in less than 80,000 fans to Wembley.
The tickets for the three 2014 games were released in January and sold out immediately--a whole 8 months before the games were scheduled to be played. The games have become huge and the teams are celebrated as they come to the city, with thousands anticipating the foreign sport. The dramatic market price increase is surprising, though, with tickets for games averaging $160 per person. The NFL is seeking out for a new market that could add to the revenue of the already billion-dollar industry. This is a prime example of how change in demographic can shift a demand. 
As the NFL continues to add more games to the London schedule each year, the demand for tickets has not wavered. Each season, secondary market prices have gotten more expensive than the previous year. While that does not mean a whole franchise will be sustainable in London, the NFL has found a market that can support at least a few games per season (Forbes).
The NFL is now the sixth-most watched league on Sky Sports, and the fastest-growing pro sport in the country. David Prodger, the new British Consul General in Miami, commented on the NFL’s growing strength, saying, “that’s the multimillion dollar question…We are seeing that there’s a real, good solid demand in UK” (Miami Herald). With a growing market in American football overseas, more games and essentially more revenue could be made for the NFL and also a new culture of NFL fans could be created.
Works Cited
Belson, Ken. "Hype Machine in Overdrive, N.F.L. Pops Back to London." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/sports/football/hype-machine-in-overdrive-nfl-pops-back-to-london.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>
"Led By Falcons-Lions Game, 2014 Will Be Most Expensive Year For NFL London Games." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/jesselawrence/2014/08/05/two-of-three-2014-nfl-london-games-will-be-most-expensive-since-start-of-international-series/>.
"Packers to raise ticket prices for 2013 season ." News RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. <http://www.packers.com/news-and-events/article-1/Packers-to-raise-ticket-prices-for-2013-season/ff0b1b65-ffc6-4d64-8d61-ca5791b00a86>.
"This time, Miami Dolphins are all business for NFL game in London." miamiherald. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. <http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nfl/miami-dolphins/article2235557.html>.
Morgan, thanks for sharing this news about NFL going international, I haven’t heard of it before. Personally, I enjoy American Football being a part of my American culture, and it makes me sad that it is expanding outside America. Like you said, Sunday football is so deeply rooted into our culture. Its not hard to imagine even domestically how football adds to our economy. Green Bay businesses expect a lot of rush on Packer game day. That being said, economically, it makes sense. When companies can find new consumers, they are obviously going to take advantage of it. Of all the things to be expanding overseas though, its unfortunate to see it take the route of entertainment through sports. Athletes have higher paychecks than they know what to do with, and the stick holders and owners of those NFL teams may be some of the richest people in the world. The distribution of money seems unfair, with the top 1 percent having 43 percent of the wealth in America. I wish that humanity could use their wealth to spread necessary things overseas like medical knowledge and clean water. I’ve been following a project started by John Green and Bill Gates, obviously both very highly respected people and wealthy people, (Bill more than John) but they have been raising money for “The Thirst Project” a project to help get clean water to developing third world countries in Africa. For every dollar raised, Bill pledges to donate a dollar. It are these kinds of advancements that I think can change the world, from a humanitarian standpoint, and economic standpoint.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of the NFL being played outside of the US, but it's a brilliant idea. The demand for NFL Live in London spiked a 10% increase over seeing it televised. The NFL already makes a large amount of money, but bringing it to another country as well could bring in a crazy amount of money.
ReplyDeleteThat was a very interesting blog post. It makes you think about where else the NFL could play games to kind of market the league and increase the already stellar fan base. With the 10% increase in televised games in London the possibility of a team starting in London doesn't sound that bad. It would help the growth of the NFL and make it more of a worldwide event like the World Cup then just strictly in the United States. It would then be able to threaten soccer for the most popular sport in the world. But of course that is a hypothetical thought. With that being said if there was a team that would move to London it would then help the economic side of London. Helping the businesses around London and the countries around London that would get more tourists just because people would want to be close to the team. Overall, it was a great post with information filled graphs and really stirred my thoughts and made me think what if there was a team in London.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard or seen of a NFL Football game outside of the US. NFL are making bigger and better decisions each year. The demand for NFL football is growing rapidly. The NFL already makes insane amounts of money from each football games and merchandise, but bringing American Football to other countries will just make NFL make more insanely high amounts of revenue.
ReplyDeleteIt was very interesting to read about the NFL's influence on the world, and its influence on market. I never knew the NFL held a game in London once a year, and am very interested in looking further in this. I must say the NFL is very experienced in making the greatest profit off of this., especially after doing it for about 8 years. It's great to see US culture having a positive influence on London.
ReplyDeleteEven Though these couple of games each year could bring in some new fans to the game, fans of the actual team want to see their teams play. Having their own team not play at their own stadium could potentially have them lose money for that week because they aren't playing their. Their fans don’t want to see their fans in London they want them to be at their home stadium where they can go and cheer them on. fans can’t fly to London to see them play. So the couple games in London to gain some fans isn't worth it.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting topic to read about. I have always thought of football being America's sport, and thought that other countries were more interested in soccer, because we see constant international matches in soccer, and there are teams from across the world, not just the United States. I never knew that there was a game that was held in another country, and if it does bring in so much money and sell out immediately why do they not hold more games there? It would help our economy if we were making more revenue off of other countries, instead of citizens within our own, and eventually this could be an economy boost for other countries as well. If the interest in the NFL continues to increase in other countries why not create an international schedule like there is for soccer? This could not only help us get more money, but also give other countries something knew for their economy, and if the interest is there it could be a good money maker for everybody.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this topic and how you connected it to economics. I thought it was interesting to see how American Football is starting to take affect in other countries. It was also cool to see how every year more and more games are being scheduled in London, and how they are being sold out. Overall this was very interesting and a cool subject.
ReplyDeleteIt’s amazing to me how football is extending its roots to other parts of the country, specially to the soccer-loving continent of Europe! Coming from South America I can testify that there is no deeper love than the love of a soccer fan for its club, and so it’s very surprising to me that Europeans are accepting football in their own grounds. However, as of now I can’t really picture football becoming as much of a franchise as it currently is in the United States. In fact during a regular season the NFL expects to take in about $9.5 billion, needless to say, football has been cultivated to the American culture, and the love and passion for the game is yet to be seen in other places. Although I I think that the love of the sport will end up uniting many cultures, I also think that creating an international schedule would be beneficial and would increase the overall revenue of the sport.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting and extremely unexpected to hear that the NFL is making a "pond crossing". The facts you have adds to your proof and my understanding of the economic concepts. This piece is very good.
ReplyDeletethe NFL moving some of there games to london to make more money is the stupidest thing ive ever heard maybe if the stop paying players 100 million dollars (JJ Watt) they wouldnt be running out of money
ReplyDeleteI think just because not as many people want to go to football games doesn't mean price should go up. As the price increases not as many people are going to want to go to as many games. the supply for games will go down because the price is to high for people to buy tickets. I think the price should be lowered because then more people would go to them so your price would go up.
ReplyDeleteThe demand for many sports across the globe is staggering. But a point that I find interesting about this piece is it addresses the aspect of almost foreign sports and their affect on both the industries of that sport and the country it is being brought to. Although I do believe there is some demand in Europe, the UK specifically, for football, I think the effect it would have is a bit over exaggerated. Think of it this way. There are 32 NFL teams located in the United States and 256 games played throughout an NFL regular season. Turnouts at these games are huge, as well as they are in London. But, if there are 256 NFL games, and 253 of those are played at various locations across the United States, that would take an enormous amount of fans to both sell out tickets for the games as well as watch these teams compete on television to maintain ratings and therefore revenue. In the UK, there are only 3 games per year and this is not even distributed throughout different locations or many games in one day. The demand might be there for those three games, but the supply is extremely low, therefore, we create a shortage. This creates mad competition between many people who want to view the game. While there is a shortage in the UK, this is much less noticeable in the United States as the supply is much greater, causing for more opportunity to obtain tickets for a game. Although I do believe there is a market in other countries across the world for football, if the same amount of supply in the United States were to be transferred over seas, I believe you would see a stark difference in the demand for football in the United States versus the UK.
ReplyDeleteComing from latin America, I don’t see how Football is going makes a big play in the countries in Europe as the love for Soccer there is so great for the club that they cheer for. Although Football is thought of to be Americas sport it could easily become soccer with America. Soccer is better known in other countries to be the main sport and the “cool” sport to be in, but through the years it has become a sport that unifies many cultures and enriches the culture background of the United States.
ReplyDelete